Month: May 2021

Start: Yellow Springs Campsite (AT mi 1174). Stop: Unnamed Tentsite (AT mi 1186). Today’s miles: 12 miles. Total AT mileage: 161 miles

Today was simultaneously incredible and an ass kicking.

I woke up and got up around 7am, ate breakfast and packed up. Towely was heading out as I was getting up, Curmy and Cholula left as I was finishing breakfast and breaking down my tent, and I left as FarOut and Hot Sauce were finishing up their breakfast, around 8:20 or so. I really haven’t gotten any faster at packing up.. and I’m ok with that, as long as I’m leaving before 9-since it’s getting into the 80s now during the day.
I cruised right along this morning, finishing up the audiobook I started yesterday (the murder mystery), it had less than an hour left but I couldn’t keep my eyes open last night to finish it then. Once it ended, I just listened to the birds singing, taking in and appreciating this opportunity I’m currently living.

I was smiling and watching the river to my left when just ahead on trail a deer darted out of the trees and then stopped. I stopped and watched her, she was a beauty, and I didn’t want to scare her. I got a picture of her staring right back at the camera, and as if she knew I had gotten a good one, she pranced on across the trail and up into the woods out of site. This was my favorite moment of the day.

Sometime after 10 am, I got to a fork in the trail with a sign in the middle saying “cemetery” and an arrow pointing left. Luckily for me, the AT went right. Not much farther down I had to cross a beaver dam area, luckily there were mostly logs/thick branches to balance on, and if I went off of them it wouldn’t be but calf deep, but the water was disgusting and had a swampy look to it. I did my best to stay out of the water, although I do lack some grace, so I did choose one branch that dipped my feet into the water for a minute.. but it wasn’t bad.. it was just slow moving through there. Honestly I was expecting to see snakes slithering around everywhere, so while I was enjoying the strangeness of the scenery, my eyes were darting around like crazy and I was mentally preparing myself to not jump off into the water if I did in fact come across one. Happily, beaver dam stayed snake free for me!

Only 30-45 minutes later, I was crushing an uphill climb and down to my left beside my trekking pole was a huge ass black snake. While my heart leapt into my throat and I jumped sky high- BUT I didn’t scream.. these are baby steps here folks, I’m counting this as progress. I also managed to calm myself enough to turn around and take a picture of him-although not brave enough to get closer to see his head more clearly in the picture. Literally JUST looking at the photo freaks me out!

I crossed some bridges, both well made and not so much, I went through gorgeous green tunnels, and I took my shoes off and relaxed at a huge river. It was at the river that I caught up to Curmudgeon and Cholula. We all filled up on water here, to tote the almost 2 miles to where we planned on camping, because once again: no water near camp.

While us girls had our feet in the water, Curmudgeon goes, as calmly as ever, “is that a snake?” I jump out of the water, asking where..He’s pointing, we’re not seeing, and then boom: second snake siting of the day for me (their 4th today!)! I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture bc I left my phone at the waters edge when I jumped out, and the snake went in the same direction before disappearing from site along the bank upriver. This one was much smaller than the black snake, and colored like the rattlesnakes, but I don’t know for sure that this one had a rattle on it.. I don’t think it did. But I was also panicked, so who knows?

The trek to camp was all completely UP. At like a 70 degree angle. Honestly, it sucked. And the sites are kinda crappy. My tent barely fit at one spot, and there’s definitely rocks under me that I couldn’t dig out. And it’s on a slight angle, too. Cholula and Curmudgeon’s 3 man tent is set up across the way from me and pretty snug in a little alcove off trail. Towely and FarOut and Hotsauce got their tents up just down trail a little from us, and I think their set ups are a little worse off than ours, even more of a slope than mine.

A group of 7 NOBO hikers came through after all of us set up, and kinda seemed pissed that there isn’t really room for all of them to set up here. We were trying to figure out what we could move and rearrange so they’d fit, but they decided to keep going uphill and try to tent at the overlook about 3.5 miles farther. Another NOBO came through maybe an hour after them, but he just has a single man tent, so he was able to squeeze in comfortably between us. He’s probably the only one on mostly level ground! Haha

It’s almost 8pm now, and I have to tell ya, the second the sun decides to slightly dip from the sky, my eyes are trying to close! I’m all ready for bed and plan to be sleeping soundly here soon. With all of us tenting so close, I may pull out the earplugs just to make sure I stay asleep 🙂

Start: Unnamed Tentsite (AT mi 1186). Stop: 501 Shelter (AT mi 1196.1) Today’s miles: 10.1 miles. Total AT mileage: 171.1 miles

I got started a little late this morning, 8:45 before I hit the trail. While I was eating breakfast we saw 5 or more hikers pass our site. Once I got going up that god awful uphill, I felt like I was smooth cruising-until I looked at my watch and saw I was barely maintaining 2 miles per hour. Oh well, every step still moves me closer to my goal.
When the grade leveled out, the rocks showed up. I think I’ve now entered “Rocksylvania” or at least the start of it. Pennsylvania is known as the “worst” state on the AT simply because of the rocks-so it’s been nicknamed “Rocksylvania” and “Painsylvania” LOL

These rocks are of all sizes, and you’d think the big ones would be easier to navigate but they all equally suck. All I can think to explain is that it’s like that Ninja Warrior show on TV and the rocks are like the weeble wobbly things you jump to, the second you step on it, it moves, and everything continues to teeter totter with each move you make. And, the smaller rocks are called ankle turners, because, well, they’ll turn your ankles real quick.

I met up with the group that I watched pass me when I was eating breakfast. They were all stopped at an outlook.. I stopped to see it too, and we introduced ourselves. There was Lady Bird and Lindsey, both flip flopping from Virginia. Then there was Spring, Morning Dove, & Landfill-all from Springer. They asked where I was headed today.. I tell them.. Then they return with the greatest news EVER: Pizza can be delivered to the shelter we’re all hiking to!! OH HELL YEAH! Bring on the rocks, because I’m making it to pizza!

They all end up passing me on the rocks, and maybe 30 ish minutes later I come across Curmudgeon and Cholula. She re-twisted her bad ankle! She looks a whole lot better than she feels, I could tell her foot was hurting her, but damn she has a poker face.

I press on after talking with them and telling them about pizza, I think that lifted her spirits some too. Not too long afterwards, I came back across the group that told me about the pizza. I mentioned Cholula’s ankle and Spring AND Lady Bird both started digging through their packs! As Cholula turned the corner, they had her an ace wrap and some coban to wrap it with! Such incredibly kind people. While we were all hanging out there, Morning Dove mentions that someone just text her that there’s trail magic up ahead!

So I push on, knowing it’s like 2.2 miles to trail magic.. Lizard texts me that she’ll wait for me at the trail magic because she’s already there! This day just keeps getting better! She went into the town at the road that the trail magic is on to resupply, so she’s staying at the same shelter, too! We’re about to have one hell of a pizza party!

Which is exactly what happened! All of us ended up hanging out for awhile with Slick, the trail angel that set up a cooler with cold Gatorade’s and other drinks, tons of snacks and bananas, plus chairs for us to all sit around in. He was one cool guy. He even let people charge their phones.
We passed a couple beautiful overlooks, then got to the shelter. Derby, No Filter, Crinkles, & Randy were already there. So it was those 4, me, Lizard, Curmudgeon, Cholula, Waterfall (a guy we met at the magic), Morning Dove, Landfill, LadyBird, Lindsey, Spring, plus lots of other folks I haven’t met. It was a good evening! We all ended up ordering pizza and sitting out at the picnic tables. After we ate, they started a fire.. and we all hung out and laughed a whole lot. Let’s just say there’s a reason No Filter is named No Filter, and it has nothing to do with water.

Now, we’re all winding down. It’s 840pm and we’re all in our bunks (the 8 of us in the shelter)Or tucked into tents and hammocks. It’s funny how you literally only plan to stay awake with the sun and not a second longer once it leaves. I know the next few days will be rough on my feet, being in Rocksylvania now, but we only have 100 more miles of Pennsylvania left, and then states will start to feel like they’re flying by (so they tell me).

Start: 501 Shelter (AT mi 1196.1). Stop: Sandy Spring (AT mi 1210.5) Today’s miles: 14.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 185.8 miles

I have to fight my grumpiness in the mornings when I stay in shelters.. because I’m naturally grumpy when I wake up, and more so when I can hear other people moving around and getting ready. It’s a blessing and a curse, like, I’m happy I hear them, otherwise I’d sleep til 10, but I also love sleeping, and would like to get some better sleep than I have been, for sure.

Either way, I was awake, packed, and walking by 7:30 this morning. We fully walked into Rocksylvania if we were ever confused about when the rocks “start.” The balls of my feet were super tender this morning. I was concerned for another blister, up around where the ball meets the toes, but the skin was so tough I thought maybe not.. until about 2.5 miles into hiking over 18 billion rocks. One step and I felt a rip and then pop. It was definitely a blister. It has definitely now popped under pressure. It definitely hurt like hell.

While I was limping along, babying that foot by trying to not put pressure towards my toes, I hit a weeble wobble rock and started to roll my ankle! Luckily I was able to bear my weight on my trekking poles and hop off of the foot all together. If not, I’m assuming I would have rolled it completely and hit the ground. My thru hike could have ended! It’s still sore now, but no worse than the throb of the blister, and it’s hardly even swollen with no bruising I can see. I’ll call it a near miss and a huge win.

I limped along slowly for the rest of the morning.. with the pain either slowly easing off or my brain finally ignoring it. We all ended up refilling water around mile 5, and then went on a hunt for the “swimming hole” the caretaker of the shelter we stayed at told us about. Lizard made it there first. She seems to get as excited about jumping in water as I do!

Once everyone got there (except NoFilter, we were all wondering where she got off to), Lizard and I went to the top of a hill where the big rope swing was. I helped pull the rope in and then recorded her swing in! It was awesome! I was too chicken to go off the rope, lack of upper body strength and all, so I walked back around to where this wall was creating the dam or pool. Another hiker jumped off the little swing by the wall, and then I cannon balled in from the wall! That water was SOOOO cold! Like teeth chattering cold! And while it was freezing, it was also numbing all my ailments. Win win.

Cholula and I recorded Derby jump in and then Randy off the long one. Lizard jumped back in, and then we all hung out and laughed and tried to dry out. It was an incredible morning. We stayed for probably an hour or hour and a half. After everyone else got moving again, Lizard and I ate our lunch while drying a bit more before starting back out. Crinkles, Randy, Derby, and NoFilter all got a hostel for the night, so they were getting picked up only 3 miles from where we were. Cholula didn’t want to undo her wrapped ankle, so she didn’t swim, Curmudgeon washed his shirt out so he was cooled off, but mostly dry.. they hiked on while we waited it out.

We all leapfrogged each other for the rest of the afternoon, and decided to camp down by the stream near the shelter we were aiming for. Lizard hasn’t shown up yet, so I assume she decided to stay either at or closer to the shelter, unless she just kept going.. the girl definitely has her trail legs!

We filtered our water here, and Curmy built us a fire to try to eliminate some of the bugs.. it helped tremendously! We ate dinner and then escaped to our tents because of the influx of bugs once the fire was out. Oh, but Cholula and I each were able to get our food bags on a tall branch we originally aimed at only as a joke.. after she nailed it on the second try, I gave my rope a go for my bag.. I took 4-5 tries, but eventually got it!

This trail life is getting equally easier and harder at the same time. Sometimes the terrain throws you for a loop, but then you come across a swimming hole that makes you so happy it overshadows all of the pain and irritation of the day. Pretty amazing how perspective works sometimes.